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Episode 175: The Color Pie of Fast Food image

Episode 175: The Color Pie of Fast Food

E173 · Goblin Lore Podcast
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Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome back to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast! And we are back with our 8th Episode Using The Color Pie to discuss one of our top 3 Topics (Food). With each episode we find ourselves refining our Color Pie Theory for Food/Cooking and today's episode will continue that "refinement". Today we take on the American American Fast Food. This is Taya's first time doing a Color Pie of Food Episode and we have to say that she crushed it.

Again we would like to state that Black Lives Matter

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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)

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Transcript

Introduction and Episode Theme

00:00:29
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers and welcome to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast. We are here today. All three of the main hosts are here, which is exciting. We are here, speaking of three, to talk about one of Goblin's top three favorite things, which if you're a long time list for the show means, you know, we're here to talk about rocks. I mean, color pie of food. We are here to do a color pie of food episode.
00:00:57
Speaker
Um, so first we're going to, can we talk about the rocks instead? I mean, well, there's overlap. There's always overlap. And that might fit with the topic we're talking about today. I guess. I don't know. We'll see what, uh, ideas you to bring to this. Cause as per usual for this topic, we do not discuss our prep beforehand. All the more to make the prep. Yeah. Weird conversations and us laughing at each other's absurdity slash.
00:01:27
Speaker
entirely 100% true and justifiable opinions about the color pie of specific types of food. But so we are several minutes into the cast. No one has introduced themselves with a name and we're not several minutes and I'm just bad at telling time. Regardless, I'm going to introduce myself.

Host Introductions and Fast Food on Different Planes

00:01:43
Speaker
I'm Alex found on Twitter at Mel underscore chronicler. My pronouns are he him. I'll go ahead and answer our opening question and then hand it off. So we're going to go with
00:01:53
Speaker
What's one plane that is, you know, really good fast food options? I can't remember what you wrote, Hobbs, this is the closest version of it that I have. Close enough. Yeah, that's, I said, I think I said most most like best is like most we could go either way. Maybe you two would have a different opinion on this. I think that that is kind of
00:02:16
Speaker
And I'm going first, so I get to take the low-hanging fruit. So it's kind of a benefit to me. But it seems to me that Ravnica is kind of by default as the city, the default place where there's a high enough population of people to have more options. But I was trying to think of some interesting things. And then, of course, I thought of I just got options for Ravnica anyway. I decided, well, thinking about it, is it probably has the most fast food chains of all the guilds? But I think the Simic probably have the most
00:02:46
Speaker
noteworthy ones amongst the planes, because all I gotta say is fish crab. We do know canonically that there are curries, the Shishino curry stalls at least. And there are at least three or four simic cards that are literally creature-type fish crab. Crab being one of my favorite foods, I'm interested, is all I'm saying.
00:03:15
Speaker
So go next. And mostly because I also think I interrupted you when you're about to think the grinding coffee company. Thank you. They are a minority owned LGBTQ coffee provider that we
00:03:33
Speaker
think every episode, they're always super helpful to us and our fundraisers and everything else. So thank you. And as far as where I want to go for my fast food fix, it's Kamagawa. There's just so much street food there. That's a good call. There is a lot of shit. I shouldn't let you go first. I didn't really give you an option. I kind of jumped in. Yeah, that was impressive. And now I don't even know fairy goblin.
00:04:04
Speaker
But, uh, yeah, that's where I want to go to get, to get some fast food. I want to just pick up a bowl of noodles on the street and, uh, eat while I walk or pick up some dumplings or something. That's a good call. I'd forgotten like go back two years. Ravnica is the biggest like city population density thing, but you're right with, with Kamagawa now that probably has a higher density of population. Yeah.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, so Hobbs, are you glad that I maybe expanded the scope of this question now? I mean, I don't know now because yeah, now I'm like scrambling. I'm thinking just like who's who's got this very I mean, I'm thinking, you know, like, we might have city but, you know, Dominaria could just be a very large plane. So has been around for a long time. There are probably some chains there. They're, they're likely to be chains, you know, somebody does well. But I'm actually going to choose
00:05:04
Speaker
So you could introduce yourself too and then answer the question. I actually introduced myself. That's awesome. Yeah, no, we're, we're, we're pulling this full goblin style this episode already. We are fire on every goblin cylinder that there is and invented a few more on the topic of fire on those servers as well.
00:05:30
Speaker
I just popped in and stole Hobbs' question and didn't even bother introducing myself. Hobbs' answer.
00:05:37
Speaker
stole my question, my answer. Everything's been happening to me so far today. I actually think the two answers I was like, okay, it's fine. If one of them takes my answer, I'll have a secondary answer. And they were Ravnica and Kamigawa. Well, I'm Hobskew. I can be found on Twitter at Hobskew. My pronouns are he, him. So I mean, I guess I'm going to go with the other one that really makes me think more just street food options, but also having a big enough kind of like
00:06:02
Speaker
Populous and so I am going to go with Kaladesh Third at that point, but I just thought you know like Kaladesh they have an inventors fair So there's people visiting town a lot of street vendors. I mean the other option Honestly, and it's just because we don't have enough information yet would be the battle bond plane
00:06:25
Speaker
because we know that they have good stadium food and like that's fast food right like I mean so like oh yeah it's quintessential fast food right so like that was my other one and oh now I'm going with that I'm going with the battle bond food
00:06:41
Speaker
Caledesh sorry to just talking all over everything so this is a random aside so again fire in all goblin cylinders i've recently been watching a lot of just random youtube stuff at work just as something on the second screen to sort of.
00:06:57
Speaker
give me something to not have existential despair about. So there's a, I found this weird history food channel and they talk about a bunch of random things, but I can't believe how many like random fast food chains were just like Burger King was like, I got this thing that charbroils patties, this machine I invented. I'm going to try to make a burger place. And that just kind of created a chain. So Kaladesh inventors fair may have something there. You might have a few like proto fast food chains amongst them.
00:07:26
Speaker
Just ready to go, just among the inventions. But I am switching over. I'm going with the stadium, the stadium world. Because you got people coming in for the games. You got to feed them. And that's another population density. They may not all live there, but it's kind of a captive population thing, like a theme park. You know people are going to be there. You know people got to eat. You got a huge population to feed, come up with something. And it kind of creates a space for innovation for that.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, they're going to have all the sandwiches and stuff named after the most popular fighters. Yes. Last one standing, a goblin is probably going to have something named after him.
00:08:07
Speaker
So right. What are we talking about today?

The Color Pie of Fast Food and Sauces

00:08:10
Speaker
It's been a while. We haven't talked color pie of food in a while, Alex. No. And this is the first one. Tay is joining us as a yes, it is. I'm really excited about this. So I think this is like a request in the discord now that it was on the show. Yeah. Do you want to promote the specific topic to you? This was your idea. Well,
00:08:31
Speaker
You know, I know it's been talked about on previous color pie of food episodes that fast food falls in a certain general area, but I think we can get more specific than that. There are so many varieties of fast food.
00:08:42
Speaker
that we can really break down what each type is on the color pie and where they would be found. And so I have a few very specific items and then I have a few chain related things, but to kind of get to what you were alluding there to, Taya, that in the past we've talked a lot about fast food
00:09:02
Speaker
generally having some strong white to it simply because a lot of times for sort of the color of the pie of food, white tends to be sort of stuff for the masses, the things that are easy, the things that are accessible. Consistency. Consistency. We'll talk about that. And so that is like fast food to a tee.
00:09:19
Speaker
Alex, you need to do what you normally do, first of all, which is to give a rundown for those just joining us about the color pie of food because we have refined this color pie. It has been a while. Yes, and this goes all the way back to a Patreon request to talk about the color pie of sauces back in.
00:09:38
Speaker
by Zach. Yeah, in like 50s or something. I want to say episodes like the 1950s. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I want to say it's been a while, but we've done a bunch of these. And so we kind of hammered out this little system. So wait, we've got to talk about a little bit. And that one, I kind of go back to the sauces, because that was those symbols have really good quintessential examples. And so like ketchup,
00:10:04
Speaker
especially in American culture, where we're coming from, the culture that we can really speak to, that is accessible, that is consistent, that is easy, that is everywhere. There are different brands and things, but even there, the variation tends to be much more.
00:10:20
Speaker
Well, we talked about like name brands so like it means ketchup or like like ketchup that you would get in a store versus You know an artisan ketchup or something at a fancy restaurant, but but there's always variations but at its core It's kind of just yeah, well, you know what you're getting with ketchup
00:10:36
Speaker
Honestly, it is such a quintessential thing, too, that even the fancy variations tend to be not as many. And again, I think that variation is smaller than, say, like, mustards. There's a whole world of mustards that exist. It's sort of the quintessential yellow mustard that fits into that sort of pot slice for American culture. But there is a whole universe of them. But anyway, to move on to the next color, so then we go into blue.
00:11:05
Speaker
is a lot more science-y things. There's a lot fewer natural ingredients. You're trying to do different stuff with it. I think Worcestershire sauce. Worcestershire sauce. Come on. How many episodes are we in now? I mean, I do it on purpose. And literally every time I say the word on or off air, I just that's how I pronounce the word.
00:11:29
Speaker
But like you you even talked about it. You brought that to the episode Hobbs that that was Literally created by chemists. It's like okay, that sounds blue like that's it's a blue sort of approach to creating a food item Then you get to like black and I like to you know, the the encapsulation is like the flavor at all costs black gravy There's a great black flavor both because a it's that flavor at all costs it is
00:11:57
Speaker
Rich, it is greasy, it is not going to be good for you, it is making, but it's really good. But also, for me, it's a little funny because you have a little bit of the literal necromancy in there where you're taking the juice, the drippings from this piece of meat, and even that won't escape your meal. You're going to put that into a sauce to put back onto the meat.
00:12:21
Speaker
red is head. I had some issues, you know, trying to separate red, but I think red tends to be more experienced hot sauce. You you are trying to experience something or maybe the punch, right? It's an intensity. Exactly. There's an intensity to it. So that's where that differs a little bit though, there is a lot of stuff that will fall in that black red. And I think we're gonna hit a few of those as we're talking through some fast food stuff.
00:12:44
Speaker
And then green is more natural stuff. In a lot of ways, I saw this sort of broken out as white sort of on its own. Green and blue sort of an opposition of each other. With green, it's fewer ingredients highlighting the more natural stuff. And then red and black sort of in this conversation with each other where there's definitely a lot more overlap.
00:13:06
Speaker
So I think that's a good overview. Do you have either of you got more to throw in there, especially if you have some perspectives because you haven't done one of these? No, I think that covers it pretty well. I just say like most things I'm red centered. I put my red hot on just about everything. Definitely need that spice in my food. I like to throw like a little chili flake in most of the things I cook.
00:13:37
Speaker
Well, so I think we've had some discussions over time, I think, as we've refined this, where we've we've had nice discussion about what it means to be multicolored versus hybrid. I think because we did the one episode, Alex and I doing like breakfast foods and American breakfast foods in particular. Yeah, it was kind of like base black for almost everything because it's really just about flavor and who cares? You're not worried about the calories or preparation.
00:14:02
Speaker
awful from that. Which means it's amazing. I really miss my partner's double chocolate peanut butter chip pancakes that he made for me, but I've been on a
00:14:16
Speaker
I've been on a calorie controlled diet for a while and I don't get to have them anymore. It makes me very sad. See, it was like everything that Alex that we're coming up with, it was like biscuits and gravy, right? It was like everything was very, it's like base black. And so it was kind of, you know, looking at the idea of hybrid versus multicolor.
00:14:33
Speaker
And I think that based on where our definition has been in the past, we could see kind of a lot of hybrid white here, or at least where there's an element of white if we're talking about chains, because that's generally what we're referring to. And then we've also just talked about preparation styles. Could it be its own other color pie? Bringing that up with the chains and stuff, I think we can start by just defining what we're even talking about when it comes to fashion. For me. Defining things. Alex loves this.
00:15:01
Speaker
For me, it's anything that is done either with like a drive through or counter service or walk up stall where you're not, you're not sitting down to have a meal. You were just getting your food and doing something else with it. Yeah. That fits. And a lot of these, you know, we'll have seating places at the counter and then you go sit down. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:31
Speaker
You can choose to eat there, but it's not a place where you go sit down and you place an order for your food. Yeah. I like that that works. And I've mostly picked up, well, not mostly, everything I've sort of prepped is specific chains. So these are restaurants, fast food locations that have a large number of locations. Most of them are pretty national in the US. A few are fairly regional.
00:16:00
Speaker
But even there, we're talking 40, 50, 60 locations on the low end for most of these into the hundreds or thousands or more on the higher end is what I'm talking about. I can accept this. I'll take this definition.
00:16:17
Speaker
Um, so I'm going to start with a weird one, which isn't even on my list because that's just where I'm at. But this is cause I want to talk about this concept a little bit. And again, goblin full,

Fast Food Chains and Their Unique Elements

00:16:26
Speaker
full bore. So I want to talk about five guys, but not even most of their food. Cause frankly, most of their food feels really black, but, um, the fries, one of the things that five guys does, do you walk into a five guys, like they'll have tons of fries. I give you just too many fries, a black amount of fries, but.
00:16:44
Speaker
they have on the board where these potatoes came from.
00:16:50
Speaker
And they have bags of them sitting around, too. They just have bags. And then they also have the peanuts, if you want to show peanuts and eat while you're waiting for your food. Yeah, it's not friendly for a lot of allergens. No. But from that sourced thing, and again, there's lots of other things going on here, but I think this is actually, by and large, where we get our green in a lot of these places.
00:17:16
Speaker
For the most part, there's a few places you can get a little bit of green in the color pie, but I think this is one of the most green sort of practices where there's a place where it's like we source our stuff locally or this case, like they don't do their local potatoes, but they know exactly these potatoes came from this farm in Idaho.
00:17:35
Speaker
this place, you know, this other city in Montana, wherever else they grow potatoes. So I just kind of wanted to mention that concept because there's a few chains, one of which I'll talk about later, that also do that for a lot of their other ingredients. And I think at least that particular practice. And you can get the fries Cajun style. So you have the perfect gruel fries. Yes. Nice. Yes. Yes.
00:18:01
Speaker
Okay, so I guess along the lines and if we're gonna stick we could stick to a similar Concept which is simplicity in menu and also kind of this this Similar in the sense that they do their own potatoes on site They're nowhere near as good but their burgers and their milkshakes are to me and it's also the price thing and I mean I guess we could start with
00:18:26
Speaker
looking at price differentials. So I'm talking about in and out, which is mainly west coast, a little bit into the southwest, they they've moved a little bit, but it's like a nationally known. And one of the things that they are, they're kind of like you often hear them versus five guys, but the difference being, like, I went in there when we were in California, I bought food for like me, my mom,
00:18:47
Speaker
Jen and Gwen and like milkshakes, some amount of fries, and it was like 30 bucks. You go to five guys, that's like 50 easy, right? Like they're not cheap. Now, but in and out is basically, there's a secret menu. Now secret menus is a cool concept when it comes to, that's like, maybe I could add some blue in there. Yeah, that is a straight up Demir at that point.
00:19:10
Speaker
right so like maybe maybe in and out is our true five color um but anyway in and out because they also make fries that basically so okay their secret menu is is a couple of things one is animal style is the main thing they like grill your onions
00:19:26
Speaker
they they they literally take your bun and like slather it and mustard and then there's like sauce in it but they also make fries that way which are fries within their like secret sauce that a thousand islands based sauce with cheese that it's like not on the menu so their menu if you look at it literally has like burgers and you can like add patties so you could go they all that's listed as a burger cheeseburger double double
00:19:51
Speaker
milkshake fries drinks. That's it. That's the entire menu. But like, you can then get like a Neapolitan shake and they'll make it you can get your burger served protein style and they'll wrap it in lettuce for you instead of a bun. You can get your
00:20:06
Speaker
burger or fries animal style so like there's those elements to it and they also have just just because it's California jalapenos available like everywhere like fresh ones but they also don't have like freezers on site so their food gets delivered in fresh daily um they do their like they like do their potatoes fresh on site so you can see people working actually making the like like break uh
00:20:32
Speaker
you know, putting the potatoes through like a machine and making fries with them. So I don't know. The more we're sitting here is the perfect fast food place is all I can think of. And it's got to be five color. So yeah, that makes sense to me. Okay. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done for the night. I'm good. We can tell who's who's from California on this.
00:20:53
Speaker
There might be a regional bias, but it's still, we had the Demir secret menu, fresh ingredients. I saved my regional one for later. Oh, good. I probably can guess what that is, but, Kate, you got to give us a restaurant here. Let's talk about it. I took a slightly different approach here. I didn't necessarily go by chains. I went with food style. Nice. I wanted to start with was one of my go-tos, which is just a good fish and chips.
00:21:23
Speaker
which there's plenty of, like there's a local chain to the Seattle area called Ivar's, which makes it absolutely amazing fish and chips. You can walk in and get it Cajun style, you can get it regular, you can get it with clam chowder, of course. They have multiple different flavorings of vinegar to go with your chips, which is even better. But this is what I kind of consider my, you know, if I had to go to fast food,
00:21:53
Speaker
I'll get to my one that I eat most regularly because it fits in my diet the best, but this is like my favorite. I just wish I could eat it more often because it is a lot of calories. Um, but you know, you get that nice fried fish and you get the, uh, you know, the chips are usually, you know, fish and chip places usually have the most basic fries in the world. You know, you get. Oh, unless they have beer battered fries.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. You know, for me, this is like. Very solid, solidly Azorius food, because this is like fresh out of it's it's definitely blue, because this is, you know, seafood's got to be blue every all of the sea creatures are blue. So if you're turning them into food, that's got to be blue. And it is a it is a pretty artificial process. You don't get.
00:22:50
Speaker
You don't get fried fish patties without going through a lot of steps in the process. You're saying they didn't just have some nice cod that they battered and threw a bit of fryer for you, usually. Like, I think of like Long John Silver. I'm not expecting to get like a nice cut of cod. Yeah, you're getting processed fish fillets. Yes, and they taste great. Yes, they do. They taste fantastic. And then, you know,
00:23:19
Speaker
And, you know, maybe it moves into the just guy wedge a little bit, because especially when you have places that start customizing the flavorings that you can have and, you know, get a, you know, I, they have my two favorite vinegar flavors they have are a chili vinegar and a garlic vinegar. And I just, I dip my fish in them, I dip my chips in them and, uh,
00:23:45
Speaker
It just adds that perfect extra bit of spice to what is already a pretty basic meal.
00:23:51
Speaker
But for me, that is just when I think of what my ideal fast food is, it's hard to beat a classic bowl of fish and chips. I was thinking food like I was trying to come up with places and like you were saying, like, are we talking burgers? We're talking fish. And fish is an interesting one to me, especially how it is done with that consistency of a fast food restaurant. Yeah, that's good. Yeah.
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah, because it's, by and large, I think most fish things tend to be more green. Most of the time you're cooking fish, you tend to do less to it, but then you go to the best food place and it's like, well, it's not always the case. And you get into, into that sort of environment. So yeah, it is an interesting.
00:24:33
Speaker
examination. I do not have options with fish. That's generally not a big thing for me. But I did want to talk about and this is random. This is an incredibly specific item on one menu. I guess other places have this but I want to talk about Wendy's chili.
00:24:51
Speaker
So fair, that is fair. So hey, I love their chili, by the way, this this one of my favorite, like the little sides on their menu, I used to do it, I used to get it back before they got new fries, like, you know, when I say new fries, this was like 15 years ago. But before that, their fries were bad. Their fries are much better now.
00:25:07
Speaker
And so they, like, they, the way they improved their fries was by going, you know what, we have all these other sides. Do you want to bake potato instead of fries? And I was like, yes, I would like anything instead of these fries. And so I used to get the chili because it's really good. But the point is, I think their chili is gregari because it literally is how they use, this was a just a weird conversation, weird, but
00:25:27
Speaker
conversation I had with a friend of mine who used to work in restaurants, who also loves Wendy's Chili. And someone apparently was like, well, don't you know, they just put all their broken burger patties or things that are overcooked in this? And he's like, yeah, I hope so. It's good. And it's a perfect place to use this stuff up. I hope so.
00:25:45
Speaker
So they actually get to use that food up. And so I just, I love that idea. It's, it's them talking about the gravy thing, reanimating the, the, you know, burger patties that they couldn't otherwise use or whatever. They just throw it in the chili and it works. I like it. I don't know. The rest of their menu, it's, I can't,
00:26:08
Speaker
I think their stuff tends to have more actual whole lettuce and vegetables than like say a McDonald's. So there's a little more green compared to them, but I don't know. I just, I just wanted to talk about Wendy's chili. That's fair. That's like one of those options. I think that we've even looked at to be gluten free for Jen and she loves their, their chili, like historically. So, and even just talking about ubiquity, you can walk into any Wendy's in the country and get the same exact chili.
00:26:38
Speaker
Yep, and that's what I think there there is a comfort to this and we've talked about this I think Alex with the the white not it's the consistency piece oftentimes is a comfort thing, right? Like it's that idea that it's you know what you're gonna be getting and that's what you got Yeah, I mean and one thing I know where it's good is like you're talking about, you know folks like Jen looking for gluten-free if you have people who have specific
00:27:06
Speaker
Like allergies or restrictions. Exactly. But you know, if you these places are going to, by and large, be good about posting, this is what we have. But if you it's a thing that you know, from where you live, and you travel,
00:27:22
Speaker
you know you can go there and get the same thing, because that is the entire point of a chain, barring a handful of regional differences. And in national differences, there's going to be some differences. Yeah, there's actually some. And even across national borders, you'll see some consistency, more than you would get at other non-chain things. You go to a random restaurant,
00:27:44
Speaker
In one country, a random restaurant, in another country, you're going to have wildly different dining experiences, potentially, much more so than a fast food place. The internet makes a big deal about, oh, what's different about McDonald's at this place or that place? But even with those differences, there's a lot of similarities, and that's kind of the point.
00:28:06
Speaker
So what I think of is something to do with how Mexican food is, right? So I think of like Taco Bell, right? That's going to be the example that I'm going to go to because once again, that's what I grew up with. And what's funny is I grew up in an area that is, you know, my hometown is probably 75% Hispanic. So.
00:28:25
Speaker
it was still a very popular option in and among my area. And once again, it was that clear distinction between this is not Mexican food, it's Taco Bell. But it's kind of this idea that right, like it still is like there's a taco shell, there's cheese, there's lettuce, there's meat, like it's trying to mimic certain things. But they've also decided that like,
00:28:44
Speaker
go wild with it right so you know you do things like so this is my like simic version because they have like the doritos locos taco where basically you know you make your taco shell out of doritos like they they actually made a dorito into a shell so which is one of the most ingenious inventions in fast food history i really hope whoever came up with that idea got a very nice bonus out of it
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah, like that's their thing in some ways, right? They even had a joke with their breakfast going so over the top that they like Paired it back down because they were just trying out like wild creations and that's kind of what they were known for They're known for like they're the home of like the Mountain Dew flavors and the most options for Mountain Dew to like appeal to a certain demographic but it's very I don't know I think they're like the simic of the world like they're like I
00:29:34
Speaker
they're sciencing trying to make Mexican food that's not really Mexican food and then add something random to it like a Dorito being the base of your shell which is genius but it's very science approach to it it's very like processed and in a way that yeah so I'm going with them for like because there's a big difference between even them versus something like Chipotle which is
00:29:57
Speaker
American burrito, but still is trying to use like fresh ingredients, you know, that's the same thing they're gonna put up maybe you know, like they talk about like how they farm their food and it doesn't have antibiotics and and like Taco Bell gets sued because like it's not even clear their meat is meat, right? Like, you know, they had a certain percentage like water in it and like
00:30:18
Speaker
There's weird, you know, like fillers being done. It's like, yeah, at least it's like, okay, both say they're Mexican food, but there is not an overlap there. Taco Bell is the Riku of my decks as far as it goes. It does nothing original on its own, but they don't make copies of everything. And like, at the end of the day, like, that's what I kind of, I don't know, like, there's days I just, I want that.
00:30:44
Speaker
I actually had Taco Bell written down and you know what I had written down from Taco Bell to talk about, Cobs? I am going to guess the cinnamon crunch that like twists. No, those are good. The quesorito. Do you ever see one of these?
00:30:59
Speaker
No, this is this is a rito with a quesadilla as a shell. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, they also had the like for a while they had like the double decker taco, which was a taco with a layer of bean and then a soft taco shell. So they've been related on that a few times.
00:31:16
Speaker
Right. It's like if they're like eldritch monstrosities in some ways, but I want them. I did not see I did not see the blue science experiment in that I saw kind of a flavor at all costs red sort of we're gonna smash things together to see
00:31:32
Speaker
Yeah, more of a rack dose approach. But I'm with Alex here. I don't think there's much blue in their food. They just go for whatever is on their mind. No, no. The process of like getting sued for like, are they meat basically? Like, there's some blue here. There's some blue going on when it comes to... What percentage of meat does our meat have to be to be classified as meat? Right. So we're saying they're Grixxis.
00:32:02
Speaker
Yes. Yes. There are drinks this. This is fair. Yeah. The cold, the whistle fast food. That's fair. Yeah. Isn't there a whole thing about Taco Bell being the last fast food place standing? Oh, yeah. Back from devilish and damned. Classic movie. Classic movie. He's the last elder dragon standing. Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:30
Speaker
So we missed the obvious best plane for fast food is the meditation realm, where Bolus is throwing some burritos together. So, honestly, I almost said the meditation realm because Bolus is going to have nothing else to do. So they just like open up little pop ups.
00:32:49
Speaker
I don't know. I'm kind of with Seanan's idea that Jace was bringing them DoorDash before. There's nothing on the meditation realm to make. Yeah, Alex, you did miss this. We like the insinuation is this is how like they basically that Elish Dornan then find out about Bolas and everything is because Jace was taking DoorDash. OK.
00:33:16
Speaker
That sounds fun. Yeah. Jason's the only one who knew that they were both there. So someone had to be bringing them food. Yeah. But I'm going to continue. I had something else, but I'm going to go into you. You covered Taco Bell and mentioned Chipotle. I'm going to discuss Chipotle because I eat there at least twice a week because it's something where I can customize exactly what I want and get something that fits within my calorie budget. That

Customization and Creative Fast Food Approaches

00:33:43
Speaker
is still a very good serving size and
00:33:47
Speaker
So I really like, I like to build your own approach that they have going on there. And yeah, it's not, and I greatly miss living in places like Phoenix where I could walk up to or drive through an actual Mexican pickup.
00:34:06
Speaker
Right. Or something and get real Mexican food immediately. But for, you know, the Pacific Northwest about, you know, I'll settle for some chipotle. And yeah, it's just I like the concept of you, you get exactly what you want and you build your own. And, you know, you
00:34:35
Speaker
you know, in my case, you know, it's basically meat, rice and hot sauce. That's pretty much all I get on mine.
00:34:46
Speaker
The rice has cilantro. There's actual flavor that's meant to be there. Yeah. You know, I agree with you. You know, they have a very green thing going, especially in their advertising and stuff. They're like, you know, it's all natural. We don't do any artificial stuff. But, you know, to me, that doesn't matter. I just want to know. And they have a bunch of different kind of meats that I can get tossed on top of stuff with hot sauce on top of it. And that that really appeals to the carnivore in me. So.
00:35:14
Speaker
You know, I'm not really sure where this falls. I definitely agree with you that there's a lot of green in the way that they approach things. I'm trying to think of like that, that sense of being able to build it yourself, like where that would fit. Yeah. I mean, that's very, is it? Maybe their team. Yeah, I could see that.
00:35:36
Speaker
You know, I was actually I might as well go. I'm going to flip the turn order around and bring my next one in just because it's also so similar. The other one I was going to bring in is I know it's it's a chain that they have up here. I'm sure they have similar things, other places, but it's Mod Pizza, which is a fast food place where you can build any kind of pizza you could possibly think of. Wait, what fast food?
00:35:59
Speaker
Like fast food pizza? This is not something that I am used to. So it's counter service. You walk in, you tell them what you want on your pizza and they have like 30 different ingredients you can pick from. They cook it up real fast and hand it to you in a box.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, we've, we've got things like that. And I would, I mean, I would argue that most of the pizza chains that we know of kind of fit the fast food sort of umbrella. I think most pizza chains do fit that, but these ones specifically has met, you know, is really focused on that get in, get out. There's a, there's a few.
00:36:30
Speaker
I'm trying to think what they're called, Blaze Pizza? Their motto is something like, you know, pizza fast or something like that. Yeah. There's, there's some smaller, or maybe not. There's some chains around here. I've seen that. I'll do something like that. Not nearly that many ingredients. We go in and you get a quick pizza, put it together and it's, it's thinner, smaller, thinner pizzas. Yeah. That's the same sort of thing. To me, this is like the most is it you can get in a fast food place because it's, you get everything exactly how you want it.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah. And you can, you know, you can do some experiments and then they also have a lot of things like sauces you can put on top. So again, like, you know, I get mine finished off with buffalo sauce on top of the pizza. Yeah. After everything else that they have, you can get ranch, you can get honey, you can get all sorts of stuff put on top of your pizza. We're learning that Taylor really likes the personalization options. And I like the cutting resolution. Yes, I am not
00:37:24
Speaker
Uh, if I go, you know, if I just go to the jack in the box or whatever, I get my burger plane because there's a lot, I'm a very picky eater. Um, five guys, you know, it was already mentioned. That's another reason I'd really like five guys because I can get just, I can get meat, bacon and hot sauce and nothing else.
00:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, and they like this place you're talking about. I have a fairly long list of customizations you can add to your sandwich. I also love that if you get a grilled cheese, they'll put that stuff in the grilled cheese too, if you want. Because I'm a weirdo who is like, I would like grilled cheese with tomatoes, please.
00:37:59
Speaker
So customization is really big for me. I want to have it the way I want to have it. And I don't want to just be stuck with American cheese and burgers and the usual stuff.
00:38:14
Speaker
So sort of going, keying up of that, going in a different direction. But this is one, this is an item I wanted to bring up and talk to the two of you and see what you were thinking about this. Because honestly, this is probably my favorite thing to order at this place. But there's the,
00:38:29
Speaker
it's kind of the opposite of the carnivore thing, the impossible whopper sandwich at Burger King. So this is a meat substitute burger that is a whopper. There's a standard whopper, everything else. But because like, there's so much stuff on a whopper that I estimate this is like 85% the taste of a normal whopper.
00:38:53
Speaker
And in fact, maybe more than that. And so I love getting this, but I'm still kind of struggling with it. I think there's definitely some element of green, because one of the things that I like about this particular sandwich, though, honestly, I think I would pick McDonald's most of the time over Burger King. This particular sandwich, the Whoppers in general have actual rings of onion, actual pieces of tomato, like actual lettuce.
00:39:16
Speaker
which is a nice sort of mix into I'm going to eat this greasy, you know, terrible for me burger. At least I have some things to put real vitamins that make me make it feel like it's not so bad. But I'm kind of struggling on what you would do for this sort of like, faux meat sort of thing that we're starting to get now.
00:39:38
Speaker
Like the impossible burgers and crumbles and green feels too easy or convenient to just say, oh meat substitutes would be that. But honestly, that's more simic. I was going to say. It's sciencey to turn those plants into something resembling meat. They don't come out of the ground like that.
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. The goal here is to mimic meat like flavor wise. It's not like that's what they're really trying to do. I mean, that's why like the impossible burger made such a splash was it tasted like a burger, right?
00:40:17
Speaker
people who were even that like hadn't eaten meat in years and had one like talked about like it feeling uncomfortable because it tasted like meat. So like that's what they're going for. They're not just trying to get you like a tofu burger or something that is just healthier. It really is supposed to be meat. So yeah, it's very simic to me. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, the science thing, of course. I mean, that that's okay. I mean, if there is if there is a
00:40:48
Speaker
you know, a shark to plus of a sandwich. It's an impossible offer. Yeah. What do you got next? Oh, you know, I'm trying to think. I mean, I guess we haven't really looked at like, if we're looking at kind of like, I'm thinking of like,
00:41:10
Speaker
not quite buffet style, but some that you might get for, I was thinking like where you kind of move along a line and choose food. So I'm thinking like to be like, like Panda Express style. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking more like, like, I was thinking like, yes, like where you go along and you could choose like a couple of each thing. Um, you know, the one that always sticks out to me is Panda Express. I mean, like, and we haven't, we have stuff that was designed for that, that like is considered quote unquote, even like Asian food, but once again, isn't. So,
00:41:38
Speaker
you know, like orange chicken is like a product of Panda Express by remembering correctly, which I think I saw this trivia fact even recently. So it's like, you know, something that I've even seen like Chinese food restaurants in areas try to pick up because Americans are going to want it. There's a lot of ingredients that show up like that, which is fascinating to from a Mexican food perspective, but something like Panda Express where it's like there's a noodle dish or
00:42:05
Speaker
There you know, it's kind of that where you you go through and you pick like selections like a cap style And I don't really know what that like would fall under like I'm bringing that one up because I really don't know It's funny because I have no clue we have in in Minnesota. I think they're pretty much Minnesota I did not have this I had this on my list of things I didn't have any idea what to talk about so I didn't I wasn't gonna bring it up but I
00:42:28
Speaker
Lian Jin is a Minnesota equivalent. Yeah, so same thing. Same type of thing. It's a regional versus, but it's the same idea.
00:42:38
Speaker
I don't know. And that's where I was struggling with that one too. I don't know. It's to me, it definitely feels like there's some black there because those are tend to be very indulgent. Those are some high, high sugar meals. Like, like good, good oil, like it tastes good. Yeah. Um, it's your,
00:43:03
Speaker
And you're kind of picking and choosing again, just what you want, but you're not mixing and matching as much. You're just picking off a list and say, you know, pop this on here. Give me my, give me my three item combo. Yeah. One out of column A or two out of column B, you know, the sort of thing. Yeah. Like it's a limited option, but you're like walking along a row where you get to choose. Like I said, the cafeteria style is what I'm trying to think of. Like I don't know.
00:43:30
Speaker
Yeah. See, that's, that's sort of a serving option. I don't know. And this is where it's like, there's so much that kind of goes into food beyond just the food itself, as we've kind of discovered doing this, this series. And it's like, this sort of presentation, is this a color specific presentation? Or is this just a way to present food that can be any color? Not sure.
00:43:56
Speaker
Because there feels to be some weight to it. But again, that comes back to the same thing that happens in all the fast food. It's more accessible. It's cheaper. It's easier for people to kind of do. And it's also more consistent. You go to a Panda Express anywhere in the US, you know what you're getting.
00:44:14
Speaker
Well, a lot of these things, because like you mentioned, Hobbes, the orange chicken, some of those dishes, you could order at almost anything and you know what you're getting. If something offers orange chicken, it's not going to be the same at every restaurant. But it's going to be a lot closer than ordering random chicken dish at this restaurant and random chicken dish at that restaurant.
00:44:36
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that gets back to this idea of like manufactured foods, especially when you go into ethnic foods where they have brought in these Americanized dishes in that are like now available at every one of those ethnic restaurants because they're expected to have them. Like you can get General So's chicken at any Chinese restaurant, even though it is like very clearly an American style dish. Yeah.
00:45:05
Speaker
Now I really want some too. I know. Yeah. Well, I mean, we've had some pretty wide range. Do you have Alex? I know that you were, were you saving Culver's? Yes. I don't.
00:45:21
Speaker
That was another one that, so Culver's is a pretty regional Midwest. There's a handful outside of that. Yeah, I've never heard of this place before. So this one's new to me. I love Culver's is my favorite. But one of the big things about Culver's is that it's all built around like Wisconsin dairy.
00:45:38
Speaker
The cheese, the custard, because they have frozen custard, all of their stuff is Wisconsin dairy, because Wisconsin is right next door for us. They're pretty big here. They're really big in Wisconsin. A few states around Wisconsin have them, and that's kind of it.
00:45:55
Speaker
um and so that it kind of goes back to that same sort of local source things they're not exactly you know every culvers isn't telling you where the stuff comes from they're not exactly that strict and like i know shake shack is what i didn't have on my list but i know that's in new york burger chain that is
00:46:11
Speaker
also locally sources their beef sort of thing. There's a couple here in the Twin Cities now as of the last couple of years. I just went to a Shake Shack on Saturday for the first time and I was so unbelievably disappointed considering how much people have upsold me on this chain. Frankly, the same for me. I went to a Shake Shack in Baltimore when I was out there a decade ago for a convention and I was like, that's
00:46:36
Speaker
A solid burger, I guess, like it was a half an hour burger and fries, and I rather would have gone to five guys. This is this is where that extension comes where I've kind of thought about, right? Like that is another one that's mentioned usually with that, like that that that triad almost with like in and out steak, Jack and the five guys. It's like each of them like once we start moving into a Shake Shack and any time I've had them, too. Same thing. Wait for my burger and fries. It's 30 minutes like.
00:47:04
Speaker
that better be a burger from a restaurant or like a sit-down burger where I'm getting great options and it's like thick and it's and it's not I mean it's just it's a fast food burger that I have to wait on and that's just like exactly what I don't want like that boy give me a juicy Lucy give me a burger that stuff that you know like in Minnesota like a burger with cheese in the middle and it's fancy at that point
00:47:30
Speaker
for that price and just wait that long. So yeah. Yeah. And that's where, again, I love Culver's. I don't know. I don't know what to call them, but I know there's that green sort of thing. It's a lot of community focused stuff. I think maybe because it's a more regional chain, that there's a lot of like they're sponsoring this local sports team or something. Like you see a lot and a lot of Culver's. You're saying they might be a Selesny.
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of what I'm leading there. And this is the thing that throws me off every time. So they're not quite fast food. They have the drive-thru. You can order at the counter. You get that. But they have like pot roasts. And they have just a few other random dinner sort of things.
00:48:16
Speaker
And I don't know where that comes from. I don't know enough about the history of the company, but it just says this slightly. A friend of mine who used to work for a local pizza chain around here, they didn't like to call themselves fast food, so they would call themselves fast casual. And it's this weird sort of distinction. And I'm like, I think Culver's kind of fits that. It's like a casual eatery that has a fast food sort of element to it.
00:48:42
Speaker
is trying to be something that's slightly more than a fast food place, if that makes sense. They want to be seen as like a family restaurant, but they have a drive-thru. Yeah, exactly. And they have some really good root beer. They do. That's got my attention. Cheese and root beer. I'm liking the sound of this place. Including a good diet root beer. That is actually a good diet root beer. I really like their diet root beer. So come visit Taillan.
00:49:12
Speaker
Hey, I'll be out there in May. I'm definitely coming for, uh, I'm coming for Magic Con Minneapolis. And that's our show for today. You can find all of the hosts on Twitter for now. Hobbs can be found at HobbsQ, Tay can be found at Tayatransends, and Alex can be found at Mel underscore Chronicler. Feel free to send us any questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to the Goblin Lord pod on Twitter, or email us at goblinlordpodcast at gmail.com.
00:49:42
Speaker
If you would like to support your friendly neighborhood Gob's Hugs, our link tree can be found on our Twitter account and in the description of today's show. This has everything from various discount codes to the link for our Patreon. The music for today's show was by Wintergotten, who can be found at vintergotten at bandcamp.com. The art was done by Steven Raphael, who can be found at stevereffel on Twitter. Gob and Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast as part of their growing forthos content.
00:50:10
Speaker
Check them out on Twitter at hipsters MTG or online at hipstersofthecoast.com. Thank you for listening and remember goblins like snowflakes are only dangerous in numbers.